TAMPA, FLORIDA--Attorneys for
Robert and Mary Schindler asked a Florida court Thursday to withdraw its
February 2000 court order which gave Michael Schiavo permission to remove their
daughter's feeding tube so she would starve to death. The court order is
invalid for at least three reasons, the attorneys claim.

In that 2000 order, Pinellas County Court Judge George Greer agreed with
Mr. Schiavo and several doctors that Terri Schiavo has been in a "persistent
vegetative state" from which she will not recover since she collapsed and her
brain was without oxygen for several minutes in February 1990. Greer based his
decision in part on claims by Mr. Schiavo that Terri told him before her brain
injury that she would not want to be kept alive on life support.

The order led eventually to Terri's feeding tube being removed in
October 2003. The tube was reinstalled six days later after Florida Governor
Jeb Bush was given permission by the Legislature under "Terri's Law" to have it
reinserted.

Terri's parents have been battling Mr. Schiavo in court to keep Terri
alive. They claim that she smiles, laughs, responds to her environment and even
tries to talk. They also argue that she is not in a terminal state and that she
deserves rehabilitative therapies that might allow her to swallow again. They
allege Mr. Schiavo of having a number of conflicts of interest, including the
fact that he has been engaged several years to a woman with whom he has
fathered two children.

In a motion filed at Pinellas County Court Thursday, the Schindlers'
attorney David Gibbs III argued that Greer's February 2000 court order should
be considered void because it is not valid for at least three reasons.

First, Gibbs claimed, the court denied Terri her constitutional right to
due process ". . . including but not limited to her nondelegable rights to be
given notice of the petition for authority to discontinue her assisted feeding,
to be represented by independent counsel, to conduct discovery, to appear in
court, to present evidence in her own behalf, and to cross-examine adverse
witnesses."

Gibbs explained in a press release that, in reviewing many boxes of
court papers in the case, "we cannot find a single instance where Terri was
afforded the right of every American to have a lawyer who would represent her
own interests."

Second, the motion alleged, the court based its decision on the wrong
law from the wrong time. If, as Mr. Schiavo insists, Terri told him before her
February 1990 brain injury that she would not want to be kept on life support,
the judge should not have used a version of the state's Life-Prolonging
Procedures Act which was written after 1990.

Prior to Terri's injury, Florida law did not consider assisted feeding
to be a form of life support. Therefore, the motion argued, regardless of what
Terri may or may not have said about life support, it would have had nothing to
do with having her feeding tube removed.

Finally, Gibbs argued that the court violated the separation of powers
provisions in the Florida Constitution.

"The Court acted beyond its judicial powers when it encroached upon the
Executive Branch by assuming the role of the State Attorney and the role of the
Department of Children and Families to ensure the safety and well-being of the
disabled, including that of Mrs. Schiavo."

"The Court's attempt to carry out the functions of judge, legislator,
and law enforcer violated the constitutional separation of powers and denied
Mrs. Schiavo a fair and impartial judicial hearing," Gibbs wrote.

Terri's case has been watched closely by "death with dignity" advocates
on one side, and disability rights and "right to life" advocates on the other.

Mr. Schiavo's supporters include attorney George Felos, who has a
history of representing "right to die" causes. Felos and the American Civil
Liberties Union took Governor Bush to court last year claiming "Terri's Law"
violated Terri's privacy rights and the state constitution's separation of
powers. Bush lost the case at the local and state Supreme Court levels. The
case now awaits review by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Disability rights groups support the Schindlers' efforts to keep Terri
alive. Terri's situation is similar to that of thousands of people with
significant disabilities across the country who are represented by a guardian.
Allowing her to starve to death would further diminish the value society places
on people with disabilities considered "not worth living".

In a related story, the Schindlers' new attorney Barbara Weller visited
Terri for the first time the day after Christmas. Terri has been in a hospice
since April 2000, even though hospices generally only serve those expected to
live less than six months.

"I was prepared for the possibility that the Schindlers love their
daughter and sister so much that they might imagine behaviors by Terri that
aren't actually evident to others," Weller wrote about the visit. "The media
and Mr. Schiavo clearly give the impression that Terri is in a coma or comatose
state and engages only in non-purposeful and reflexive movements and
responses."

"From the moment we entered the room, my impression was that Terri was
very purposeful and interactive and she seemed very curious about the presence
of obvious strangers in her room."

"I never imagined Terri would be so active, curious, and purposeful. She
watched people intently, obviously was attempting to communicate with each one
in various ways and with various facial expressions and sounds."